Sunday, June 08, 2008

Sunny Side of Greenland


2008_06_04_ams-ord_021
Originally uploaded by dsearls
Met Doc Searls last week again at Mobile Monday. He is always thought proving. Seems he took some great shots of Greenland out of the plane on his way home and blogged about the website www.notsogreen.com

That turns out to be truly fascinating, something I would never have found without help.

From their "about us".

Not so green is the web site for everyone who has ever looked out an airplane window and wondered what they were looking at. We sort through the thousands of aerial photographs posted on photo-sharing sites like Flickr, and create a global map showing the locations of images from around the world. We present this information using tools like Google Maps, which allows you to see photo locations in your browser, and Google Earth, a standalone application that you install and run on your computer. Using Google Earth, we can show you the exact location and perspective of each image in our system.

We bring you images from around the world, but we have a particular focus on Greenland, whose clear air, stark landscapes, and location along many international air routes between North America and Europe make it a popular target for many aerial photographers. We present images from all around this vast arctic island, allowing you to see its beauty through the eyes of hundreds of people who have passed overhead.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the post, and it's cool that you dig NotSoGreen as well. Great service there.

I remember one trip on a United 777 in late spring, when the pilot came on and said to the passengers something like, "I fly a lot all over the world, and Greenland is my favorite place to view from the cockpit. If you have a way, please get to a window and check it out. There's nothing else like it." On that day the top of the icefield was melting into cyan blue lakes, the glaciers were shedding giant icebergs like God's Own Dandruff onto the shoulders of the oceans, as horns and spires rose up amidst ice that seemed to be flowing fast enough to see. It was amazing. No such luck on this flight. The pilots were mute, while passengers kept their windows shut and slept, munched mediocre food, or watched shitty movies on tiny screens. Feh.

Anyway, one of my regrets from this last trip was not getting more of a chance to talk. Let's try to catch up soon. Will you be at Reboot, perhaps?

Doc

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